Subject: [os2genau_digest] No. 1717
From: Digest <deadmail>
To: "OS/2GenAu Digest"<deadmail>
Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2008 00:01:53 EST-10EDT,10,1,0,7200,4,1,0,7200,3600

**************************************************
Friday 03 October 2008
 Number  1717
**************************************************

Subjects for today
 
1   Describe - Windows version : Ian Manners" <deadmail>
2  Re:  Describe - Windows version : Ian Manners" <deadmail>
3  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Kris Steenhaut <kris.steenhaut at kolibrieweg.eu>
4  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
5  Re:  Describe - Windows version : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
6  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Peter L Allen" <allenpl at tastelfibre dot com dot au>
7  Re:  Lucide : Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
8  Re:  Describe - Windows version : Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
9  Re:  Describe - Windows version : Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
10  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
11  Re:  Describe - Windows version : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
12  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Peter Moylan <peter at pmoylan dot org>
13  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
14  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Ian Manners" <deadmail>
15   PMVNC Howto : Ian Manners" <deadmail>
16  Re:  Describe - Windows version : Ian Manners" <deadmail>
17  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
18  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program? : Mike O'Connor <mikeoc at internode.on dot net>

**= Email   1 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:31:16 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Subject:   Describe - Windows version

Hi All,

I have an urgent need to find the Windows version of Describe,
required by some Houston space agency company to read
some old files.

Unfortunetly they dont have OS/2, and they cant send the
files to me [just in case theres something in them that shouldnt
be I guess]. and of course the original companies nolonger
around.

Failing that, anyone know of a conversion utility for Describe
files to Word or ODF ?

I dont even have a Describe file to check, unless I go to the
trouble of installing it etc, which I might have to do....

Cheers
Ian Manners
http://www.os2site dot com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
**= Email   2 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:34:52 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

That was quick, teach me to look before I post !

Dont worry, found the windows version in my SWC section
of os2site dot com :-)

Cheers
Ian Manners
http://www.os2site dot com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
**= Email   3 ==========================**

Date:  Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:08:09 +0200
From:  Kris Steenhaut <kris.steenhaut at kolibrieweg.eu>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Ian Manners ha scritto:
> Its there anyway, makes my life easy in managing my wifes Mac.
>
>   
It would be feasible if you would be so kind to explain a bit how it 
works. I downloaded both

pmvnc-1.02-bin.zip = server
pmvnc103_ow.zip = client

But alas the *inf and readme* are meant for people already knowing how it works, thus leaving me in complete dispair.

It would be nice to handle eCS and my Mac with the same keyboard and mouse though.

-- 
Groeten uit Gent,

   Kris

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   4 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:18:10 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 02/10/08 12:54, Ian Manners wrote:
>> Hi Peter,
>>
>>  
>>> As part of a furniture rearrangement, I'd like to set up one of my 
>>> computers as a pure server with no keyboard or monitor. What's a 
>>> good way to control it from my desktop machine? I can use INIServe 
>>> to control my own software, and do a lot of the rest of what I want 
>>> to do via FTP, but there will surely be times when I want to get in 
>>> and do other things.
>>>     
>>
>> PM VNC Server/Viewer.
>>
>> pmvnc-1.02-bin.zip = server
>> pmvnc103_ow.zip = client
>>
>> <http://www.os2site.com/sw/apps/remote/index.html>
>>   
>
> Thanks, Ian and Paul. Seems to be slightly slower than DTOC, but 
> perhaps that's just my memory. It did work right out of the box.
>
> The colours are terrible, sometimes to the extent that things on the 
> screen are unreadable, but I'm used to that from things like Acrobat 
> and Java applications ... in fact, everything that was written with 
> SNAP Graphics in mind. I'm still not sure what to do about that 
> problem. I have a Matrox Millennium video card for which the SNAP 
> driver crashes the OS, so I've always had to use native Matrox video 
> drivers. One of these days, I guess, I'll have to switch video cards.
>
> Or maybe just buy a new box. I've heard that it's possible to buy a 
> decent PC for about $200-$300 if you don't buy a complete system, i.e. 
> if you use your old monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers. I haven't yet 
> checked out what's available that is eCS-compatible; would be 
> interested to hear if other people know of such deals with 
> eCS-compatible hardware.
>
Hi Peter,
  On the video point, you could see if the panorama driver supports your 
card and see if that's any better on colour. If you're prepared to 
change your motherboard out (which also means processor and RAM), you 
can certainly buy components for under A$300 total. A couple of years 
back a few of us did that and came across the ASUS M2V-TVM motherboard 
on which all components were supported by eComStation. Unfortunately 
that board is now "long gone" and I don't know of a similar board with 
all components compatible with eCS, but the place to check is 
www.ecomstation.ru who list boards that do work, but again as boards 
change so quickly and people don't write up articles on successful 
boards all that quickly, many of the boards listed are probably no 
longer current.

  I'm tempted to try one of the new boards that have an "expressgate" 
bootable ramdisk on the motherboard, but that's going to be a large 
project most likely as I expect issues with getting support for video 
and network.

Cheers/2

Ed. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   5 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:15:53 +1000 (AEST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

On Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:31:16 +1000 (EST), Ian Manners wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>I have an urgent need to find the Windows version of Describe,
>required by some Houston space agency company to read
>some old files.
>
>Unfortunetly they dont have OS/2, and they cant send the
>files to me [just in case theres something in them that shouldnt
>be I guess]. and of course the original companies nolonger
>around.
>
>Failing that, anyone know of a conversion utility for Describe
>files to Word or ODF ?
>
>I dont even have a Describe file to check, unless I go to the
>trouble of installing it etc, which I might have to do....
>

Ian, we have the Voyager CD here - not far from you.

We also have some vague ideas about writing a DLL to convert ODF to/from
DeScribe.

If the documents are not too complex, the old Word 5DOS or Word95 filters
are acceptable.

DeScribe installation takes about 2 minutes - mostly reading from the CD.
:-)

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
os2 at melbpc dot org dot au or 
talldad at kepl dot com dot au
___________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   6 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:40:32 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Peter L Allen" <allenpl at tastelfibre dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

snip

>The colours are terrible, sometimes to the extent that things on the 
>screen are unreadable, but I'm used to that from things like Acrobat and 
>Java applications ... in fact, everything that was written with SNAP 
>Graphics in mind. I'm still not sure what to do about that problem. I 
>have a Matrox Millennium video card for which the SNAP driver crashes 
>the OS, so I've always had to use native Matrox video drivers. One of 
>these days, I guess, I'll have to switch video cards.

Pete,
	Ran Matrox cards for years but had to rely on single user SNAP as full version 
would crash. Eventually found this was caused by the old native Crystal sound card 
driver. Now fine with uniaud and SNAP full version and much more robust overall 
(Warp4 FP15),
			Regards,
					allenpl

>
>Or maybe just buy a new box. I've heard that it's possible to buy a 
>decent PC for about $200-$300 if you don't buy a complete system, i.e. 
>if you use your old monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers. I haven't yet 
>checked out what's available that is eCS-compatible; would be interested 
>to hear if other people know of such deals with eCS-compatible hardware.
>
>-- 
>Peter Moylan                          peter at pmoylan dot org
>                                      http://www.pmoylan dot org
>

> 

>
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   7 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:56:37 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
Subject:  Re:  Lucide

Alan Duval wrote:
> Ed Durrant wrote:
>> Alan Duval wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I find that if I choose the "Fit in window" size in Lucide, that I 
>>> can view the whole page. If I choose "Actual size" the printing in 
>>> the lower half of the page is absent. At 75% some lower lines of a 
>>> page don't show on the screen. Only problem is that it's hard to 
>>> read the print when I choose "Fit in window". I don't have that 
>>> problem with Acrobat 5.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Alan
 
>>>
>>> 

>>>
>> Hi Alan,
>> Those examples you sent me all work in both Actual size and "fit in 
>> window" mode - however in "actual" mode the bottom part of the page 
>> when scrolling down takes about half a second to appear it doesn't 
>> "flow". Perhaps for some reason on your system it simply never 
>> manages to get that lower part out. Is your system fairly powerful ?
> Yes! It has an M2V-TVM motherboard with an AMD 64 4800 dual core 
> processor and 4GB memory.
>
> Regards,
>
> Alan
OK, exactly the same configuration that I have - so again, that's not 
the problem !

Cheers/2

Ed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   8 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:24:50 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

Ian Manners wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have an urgent need to find the Windows version of Describe,
> required by some Houston space agency company to read
> some old files.
>
> Unfortunetly they dont have OS/2, and they cant send the
> files to me [just in case theres something in them that shouldnt
> be I guess]. and of course the original companies nolonger
> around.
>
> Failing that, anyone know of a conversion utility for Describe
> files to Word or ODF ?
>
> I dont even have a Describe file to check, unless I go to the
> trouble of installing it etc, which I might have to do....
>
> Cheers
> Ian Manners
> http://www.os2site dot com/
>

>  
> ===========================================
>   
Was the windows version of Describe (didn't even realise there was a 
windoze version) on the same CD as the OS/2 one ? If so I'll dig my copy 
out.

Otherwise have them install the free VirtualPC2007 from Microsoft, down 
load the eCS demo CD ISO - fire it up in VPC and install and run the 
OS/2 version of describe there - no wait, I think the demo CD doesn't 
allow disk access - so it'll have to be a full version of eCS 1.2, or 
OS/2 Warp 4 .

Cheers/2

Ed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   9 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:09:19 +1100
From:  Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

John Angelico wrote:
>> Ian, we have the Voyager CD here - not far from you.
>>
>>
>>
>>     
Hi John,

What is the Voyager CD ? The only Voyager I know of is the project to 
make a new version of OS/2.

Regards,

Alan Duval
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   10 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:34:05 +1100
From:  Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Ed Durrant wrote:
> Peter Moylan wrote:
>> On 02/10/08 12:54, Ian Manners wrote:
>>> Hi Peter,
>>>
>>>  
>>>> As part of a furniture rearrangement, I'd like to set up one of my 
>>>> computers as a pure server with no keyboard or monitor. What's a 
>>>> good way to control it from my desktop machine? I can use INIServe 
>>>> to control my own software, and do a lot of the rest of what I want 
>>>> to do via FTP, but there will surely be times when I want to get in 
>>>> and do other things.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> PM VNC Server/Viewer.
>>>
>>> pmvnc-1.02-bin.zip = server
>>> pmvnc103_ow.zip = client
>>>
>>> <http://www.os2site.com/sw/apps/remote/index.html>
>>>   
>>
>> Thanks, Ian and Paul. Seems to be slightly slower than DTOC, but 
>> perhaps that's just my memory. It did work right out of the box.
>>
>> The colours are terrible, sometimes to the extent that things on the 
>> screen are unreadable, but I'm used to that from things like Acrobat 
>> and Java applications ... in fact, everything that was written with 
>> SNAP Graphics in mind. I'm still not sure what to do about that 
>> problem. I have a Matrox Millennium video card for which the SNAP 
>> driver crashes the OS, so I've always had to use native Matrox video 
>> drivers. One of these days, I guess, I'll have to switch video cards.
>>
>> Or maybe just buy a new box. I've heard that it's possible to buy a 
>> decent PC for about $200-$300 if you don't buy a complete system, 
>> i.e. if you use your old monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers. I haven't 
>> yet checked out what's available that is eCS-compatible; would be 
>> interested to hear if other people know of such deals with 
>> eCS-compatible hardware.
>>
> Hi Peter,
>  On the video point, you could see if the panorama driver supports 
> your card and see if that's any better on colour. If you're prepared 
> to change your motherboard out (which also means processor and RAM), 
> you can certainly buy components for under A$300 total. A couple of 
> years back a few of us did that and came across the ASUS M2V-TVM 
> motherboard on which all components were supported by eComStation. 
> Unfortunately that board is now "long gone" and I don't know of a 
> similar board with all components compatible with eCS, but the place 
> to check is www.ecomstation.ru who list boards that do work, but again 
> as boards change so quickly and people don't write up articles on 
> successful boards all that quickly, many of the boards listed are 
> probably no longer current.
>
>  I'm tempted to try one of the new boards that have an "expressgate" 
> bootable ramdisk on the motherboard, but that's going to be a large 
> project most likely as I expect issues with getting support for video 
> and network.
>
I note that the ASUS A7N8X-E deluxe motherboard is said to be very good 
on the www.ecomstation.ru site.
You can buy it now on www.ebay dot com dot au for $95.

Regards,

Alan Duval
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   11 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:55:10 +1000 (AEST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

On Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:09:19 +1100, Alan Duval wrote:

>John Angelico wrote:
>>> Ian, we have the Voyager CD here - not far from you.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>     
>Hi John,
>
>What is the Voyager CD ? The only Voyager I know of is the project to 
>make a new version of OS/2.

The last release of DeScribe for OS/2 was called the Voyager / Frequent
Flyer CD, containing all latest versions of DeScribe ever released
including for WinNT.

The only thing that came later was a bootleg release of a network-aware
OS/2 version.

 

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
os2 at melbpc dot org dot au or 
talldad at kepl dot com dot au
___________________
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   12 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:21:39 +1000
From:  Peter Moylan <peter at pmoylan dot org>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

On 03/10/08 11:40, Peter L Allen wrote:

> > The colours are terrible, sometimes to the extent that things on
> > the screen are unreadable, but I'm used to that from things like
> > Acrobat and Java applications ... in fact, everything that was
> > written with SNAP Graphics in mind. I'm still not sure what to do
> > about that problem. I have a Matrox Millennium video card for which
> > the SNAP driver crashes the OS, so I've always had to use native
> > Matrox video drivers. One of these days, I guess, I'll have to
> > switch video cards.
>
>  Ran Matrox cards for years but had to rely on single user SNAP
>  as full version would crash. Eventually found this was caused by the
>  old native Crystal sound card driver. Now fine with uniaud and SNAP
>  full version and much more robust overall (Warp4 FP15),

Thanks for that. It's been so long since I've checked what sort of audio 
I have - and I'm not in the mood to open up the box yet again - that I 
don't know what my sound card is. However, I see that my CONFIG.SYS 
contains 9 lines referring to files whose names start with CW, so it's a 
good bet that I have the Crystal driver. I'm guessing that the following 
line
    DEVICE=D:\MMOS2\OPL3.SYS /N:OPL31$
also belongs to the Crystal software, so I guess I should REM out those 
10 lines. (Don't you just hate it when software comes without a 
documented uninstall method?)

I've just downloaded Uniaud (114RC6) and will now try to install it, 
then I'll try SNAP again (I have version 3.1.8, which I think is the 
last version SciTech ever released. Can't figure out how to uninstall 
the Matrox driver - can't even find it - so I'll just hope that the SNAP 
installation includes a deinstallation of the existing driver.

-- 
Peter Moylan                          peter at pmoylan dot org
                                      http://www.pmoylan dot org

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   13 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:33:44 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at durrant dot mine dot nu>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Alan Duval wrote:
>>
> I note that the ASUS A7N8X-E deluxe motherboard is said to be very 
> good on the www.ecomstation.ru site.
> You can buy it now on www.ebay dot com dot au for $95.
>
> Regards,
>
> Alan Duval

Hi Alan,

  That looks like a pretty old board - it only supports Athlon XP from 
what I can see (i.e. no multi-core processors). I would expect that's 
probably at end of life unfortunately.

Cheers/2

Ed.
>
> -

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   14 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:09:37 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Hi Peter,

I have boxes of PCI and AGP cards that I'm happy to send one or
two of to you after all, the software you provide is very cheap but
still with excellent support :-)

And I know the cards are supported by SNAP.

Also with PMVNC Server, try ticking the 15bit color box on
the Misc setup tab.

PMVNC is slow but I find its all I need for looking after my server
downstairs, as well as my wifes Mac when I couldnt be bothered
walking into the study.

Cheers
Ian Manners
http://www.os2site dot com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
**= Email   15 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:12:19 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Subject:   PMVNC Howto

Hi Kris,

>It would be feasible if you would be so kind to explain a bit how it 
>works. I downloaded both

ok, when I get home later tonight (2am our time), if I have time,
I'll sit down and do a basic how to for you and others.

If I cant find one that someone else has alredy done. 
And if I make the mistake of sitting at the computer ;-)

Cheers
Ian Manners
http://www.os2site dot com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
**= Email   16 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:17:55 +1000 (EST)
From:  "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Subject:  Re:  Describe - Windows version

Hi John,

>Ian, we have the Voyager CD here - not far from you.

Think thats the file I found, contains versions for OS/2, Win16
and Win32 from 24th April 1996 - German and English.

>We also have some vague ideas about writing a DLL to convert ODF to/from
>DeScribe.

I've never used DeScribe myself, used Wordstar, then Framework from
AshtonTate, and DeD and LateX on DEC Rainbow then Word at work,
then AmiPro, StarOffice and OpenOffice. Cant even remember what
the DEC Wordprocessor I used on the VAX was back then.

>If the documents are not too complex, the old Word 5DOS or Word95 filters
>are acceptable.

So its mainly the formatting is different and those filters just strip out
the high bits ?

Cheers
Ian Manners
http://www.os2site dot com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
**= Email   17 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:00:32 +1100
From:  Alan Duval <amoht at westnet dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Ed Durrant wrote:
> Alan Duval wrote:
>>>
>> I note that the ASUS A7N8X-E deluxe motherboard is said to be very 
>> good on the www.ecomstation.ru site.
>> You can buy it now on www.ebay dot com dot au for $95.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Alan Duval
>
> Hi Alan,
>
>  That looks like a pretty old board - it only supports Athlon XP from 
> what I can see (i.e. no multi-core processors). I would expect that's 
> probably at end of life unfortunately.

Yes! I just realized that after looking at the specs.
If anyone wants an ASUS M2V-TVM  motherboard you can get one from USA. 
Go to this URL:

http://cgi.ebay dot com/ASUS-M2V-TVM-SOCKET-AM2-Micro-ATX-Motherboard-New_W0QQitemZ350096746941QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116
 
I bought mine from there.

Regards,

Alan
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   18 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:15:29 +1000
From:  Mike O'Connor <mikeoc at internode.on dot net>
Subject:  Re:  Recommendations for remote control program?

Hi Peter,
Peter Moylan wrote:
> I don't know what my sound card is. However, I see that my CONFIG.SYS 
> contains 9 lines referring to files whose names start with CW, so it's 
> a good bet that I have the Crystal driver. I'm guessing that the 
> following line
>    DEVICE=D:\MMOS2\OPL3.SYS /N:OPL31$
> also belongs to the Crystal software, so I guess I should REM out 
> those 10 lines. (Don't you just hate it when software comes without a 
> documented uninstall method?)
All crystal cards come with an Minstall installer application - 
uninstalling them is as described in all crystal readme's that I've ever 
seen - run the installer again, but set number of cards to zero to 
remove all the items! ;-)

Regards,
Mike
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------